FREE TRADE 133
countries than in England, while cotton goods could be pro-
duced more cheaply in England than in other countries. While
England persisted in producing its own food, there was less
wealth to be divided among the population than there would be
if England produced less food and more manufactures. And of
that smaller total, a larger proportion went to the landlords in
the shape of rent than would go if the worst lands were allowed
to go out of cultivation. All this followed from Ricardo's law of
rent, according to which the rent of a piece of land is the
difference between its produce and that of the worst land in
cultivation. Consequently free trade in corn would doubly benefit
the non-landowning classes: there would be more wealth in the
country, and they would obtain a larger share of the
increased total. Free trade, therefore, was in the interests of the
industrious classes; both masters and men.
It was, moreover, in the interests of the world at large. The
nations from whom Great Britain bought food would be en-
riched, and the mutual benefit of trade would appease inter-
national rivalries, thus tending to promote peace. So, at least,
the advocates of free trade believed.
In this way there arose a situation in which a powerful class
could advocate its own interests while furthering the general
good. Such situations are apt to call forth as leaders men
of broad and humane outlook, in whom the element of self-
interest is concealed by public spirit. Cobden, the leader in
the battle for free trade, was such a man. Himself a cotton
manufacturer, he was intimately aware of the pecuniary
advantages of free trade to his class, but he was at the same time
an internationalist, to whom free trade was part of a larger
cause, the cause of world peace. When he had won free trade for
his fellow manufacturers, he found, to his chagrin, that they had
no use for the rest of his programme. His public spirit was an
asset to them while it accorded with their self-interest, but when
it ceased to do so they turned against it
Cobden had a general outlook on politics which, though it re-
mained largely inoperative during his lifetime owing to the adverse
influence of Palmerston, became subsequently very important, since
it was adopted, in the main., by Gladstone and the less Whiggish
section of the Liberal Party. Moreover the prestige which he ac-
quired through the success of the Anti-Com-Law agitation caused
Continental liberalism to be greatly influenced by his outlook, and
gave him an importance which was by no means purely British.